by More than 2,000 people have registered for a job fair at Toronto’s Pearson airport after nearly three years of travel turmoil caused by COVID-19.
“The airline industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, but travel is back and the industry is roaring and we can’t fly without boots on the ground and in the sky,” Karen Mazurkewich, vice president, customer relations stakeholders and communications, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“It’s an amazing industry and this job fair is just a small window into the size of this vibrant economic area here in the GTA.”
Jobs at Canada’s busiest airport include 400 positions in customer service and hospitality, as well as security and baggage handling.
The GTAA said it only employed 1,500 of the 50,000 people who worked at Pearson before the pandemic.
Tuesday’s job fair, which saw registrations top 2,300, seeks to fill vacancies left bare over the past three years to prepare the airport for future success.
Accompanying the massive hiring event, which was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, a new job portal and pilot project, which Mazurkewich says will accelerate security clearances for employees who require them.
Gurvinder Singh is one of many potential employees at Tuesday’s fair and said he would take any job he could get.
” I have no preference. Whatever I find suitable for me, I will go for it,” Singh told CP24.
Toronto Pearson made headlines for all the wrong reasons last summer after months of flight delays and cancellations. At one point, the airport was rated the world’s worst airport for delays by CNN.
The unenviable ranking, caused by staffing issues and the COVID-19 travel measures still in place at the time, now seems to be a thing of the past and the introduction of new tools in recent months has enabled travelers to navigate the airport faster.
Charmaine Williams, Associate Minister for Women’s Social and Economic Opportunities, was on hand Tuesday and celebrated the turnout at the airport northwest of the city, which she described as an important “enabler of the southern economy of Ontario”.
“A job fair is nothing but great economic news for the local community and for Ontarians who use this airport so much,” said Williams.
